Project PLACE/Project ExCEL

Project PLACE and Project ExCEL are US Department of Education, Office of English Language Acquisition, National Professional Development grant initiatives that use the Culturally Responsive Instruction Observation Protocol (CRIOP) as a professional development framework for classroom teaching and family collaboration. 

This PD framework structures project activities around the targeted Classroom Relationships, Family Collaboration, Assessment, Instruction,  Discourse, and Critical Consciousness strategies and employs intensive yearlong professional development including school-based coaching. Graduate coursework is used to prepare teacher leaders to support implementation of effective practices for multilingual students to serve as advocates in schools.

1. Classroom Relationships: Establishing teacher care and a culturally responsive classroom environment.
2.  Family Collaboration: Promoting open communication between families and the teacher, developing partnerships with parents and caregivers, and valuing “funds of knowledge”.
3. Assessment Practices: Discovering students’ strengths and literacy competencies and observing students’ potential for learning. 
4. Instructional Practices: Incorporating students’ cultural knowledge and affirming students’ racial and cultural identities.
5. Discourse: Providing abundant opportunities for student conversation and explicitly teaching the “language of power”.
6. Critical Consciousness: Exploring issues important to students and their families, encouraging students to engage in problem-solving of real-world issues, and analyzing biases in texts and aspects of popular culture.

The CRIOP instrument for observing and guiding teachers was developed through the collaborative efforts of Rebecca Powell, Susan Chambers Cantrell, Yolanda Gallardo Carter, Angela Cox, Sherry Wilson Powers, Elizabeth Campbell Rightmyer, Kelly A. Seitz and Tiffany Wheeler. The instrument was revised in 2012 by Rebecca Powell, Susan Cantrell, Pamela Correll, Victor Malo-Juvera, Doreen Ross, and Ruthie Bosch, and inter-reliability of the CRIOP was established. Many of the photos on this website are from teacher participants in Project PLACE.

For more information on the CRIOP or to access training materials, contact Susan Cantrell at susan.cantrell@uky.edu.